Hair Test Interpretation: Finding Hidden Toxicities

by Andrew Hall Cutler, PhD, PE
ISBN: 978-0967616810

A wide variety of debilitating and supposedly incurable conditions may actually be due
to chronic mercury poisoning. Mercury poisoning can be easily cured if it is recognized.
These conditions are seldom cured because mercury poisoning is believed to be rare. It is
not. It is quite common. Thus, many people suffer needlessly.

The problems is the tests most frequently used by medical doctors are only accurate for acute
poisoning, like if you drank some mercury. Most people have chronic poisoning - small exposure to
toxic material over time, like mercury vapor from your fillings or arsenic from your garden vegetables.

By working with many people, Dr. Cutler was able to develop a set of rules for hair tests which allow you
to identify if you are toxic. Once you know, you can take steps to improve your health.

What is in the book?

Hair Test Interpretation: Finding Hidden Toxicities is a practical book. The book starts
out telling you how to interpret a hair test for mercury and other heavy metals.
It provides a step by step discussion of this with figures to make this easy to do.
It gives examples using actual hair test results from real people.

Mercury interferes with how the hair element results come out. On the hair test, mercury is often low and
other minerals take unusual values. It is crucial for proper hair test interpretation to know how to recognize
mercury's characteristic signature.

Mercury often causes retention of certain minerals. Arsenic, antimony, tin, titanium,
zirconium and aluminum are elements many people retain too much of when they really have a
mercury problem.

Hair tests are worth doing because a surprising number of people diagnosed with incurable
chronic health conditions actually turn out to have a heavy metal problem. Heavy metal
problems are easy to correct. Hair testing allows the underlying problem to be identified
and the chronic health condition often disappears with proper detoxification

Essential element levels contain much useful information about hormones as well as nutritional
problems. High hair levels do not always mean high body levels.
Interpretation is specific to each element. Some of the essential elements can
be toxic if they show high hair level, others actually show high hair levels when the body
is deficient and needs more of them. Excessive stress, poor digestion, adrenal issues and
thyroid problems all show up in hair tests long before they can be identified by other laboratory methods.

Hair Test Interpretation contains over seventy example hair tests with background
information and interpretation. All of these tests are actual results from real people,
with complete details of their health situation, what they are doing about it, and in many
cases how they responded to different treatments. Several families are presented with hair
tests and health histories for all members, one including identical twins. Several of the
cases have before and after hair tests showing the effects of different treatment regimens on test results.

Hair Test Interpretation: Finding Hidden Toxicities also contains a discussion of
what to do based on the test results, e. g. how to chelate heavy metals.

Back cover copy

This book shows how a hair test can be used to identify hidden toxicities that are causing
intractable health problems. Dozens of examples are given of people who had been
told they had something horrible but who turned out to be toxic. Many of these people got
better through detoxification. Their cases are presented to highlight the basic principles of
hair test interpretation explained in this book. Want to know why low hair mercury is not a good
sign? Interested in whether high hair calcium means you should consume MORE calcium? Wondering
how in the world zirconium gets in your hair? Wondering whether you should be concerned about
your copper levels if you have gall bladder problems? Need to know how to detoxify uranium?
This book will answer all your questions!

Find out if you have a heavy metal problem

Know the sources of exposure to heavy metal

Learn what to do to dexotify each element

Understand the secrets of interpreting a hair test

Find the information you need to take control of your health in this book!

Conditions heavy metals can cause

This book explains how to properly interpret a hair test so you can tell if conditions
like these ones below are actually due to heavy metal poisoning, as is commonly the case.

Relation of calcium, phosphorus, sodium, magnesium, potassium
and other elements

Sulfur (S)

Iron (Fe)

Essential and other element hair test results - trace minerals and other elements

Barium (Ba)

Boron (B)

Chromium (Cr)

Cobalt (Co)

Copper (Cu)

Germanium (Ge)

Iodine (I)

Lithium (Li)

Manganese (Mn)

Molybdenum (Mo)

Rubidium (Rb)

Selenium (Se)

Silicon (Si)

Strontium (Sr)

Vanadium (V)

Zinc (Zi)

Zirconium (Zr)

Appendix: Statistical tables and calculations

Appendix: Various laboratories' hair tests

Appendix: Reference ranges vary with age and sex

Index

Excerpt from the Book:
Preface

This book explains how to properly interpret a hair test
and gives specific examples of how to do this using
Doctor’s Data Laboratories and Great Plains
Laboratories tests.

This book is intended for a broad audience, including physicians,
other kinds of licensed health care practitioners, and laymen.
Physicians have their own special language to describe health
care concepts. While this language is clear, precise, and
standardized, it is also not understood by laymen. In order
to make this book accessible to as many people as possible,
I have used common laymen’s terms for health care concepts and
conditions in most cases. I have mentioned the proper medical
terminology in many cases but it simply isn’t practical to do
this throughout the book.

This book is a practical book. It provides detailed academic
style information only in those areas where that is important
so readers can understand things in order to be able to use the
methods described in this book. For example, I do go through the
details of how to calculate probabilities so that people who
routinely use tests with a different format can come up with their
own counting rules for the labs they use. In other areas little
information is provided in the interest of brevity. I cite references
only when you might actually want to verify them or check out what
else they say, not simply to produce a long important looking
academic style bibliography that nobody will ever read.

Because the book is intended to be useful in a practical sense,
some material is repeated if it is relevant in several sections
so that people don’t have to go flipping through the book when
they are trying to look up one specific thing. For example, the
effects of low magnesium are repeated under all the toxic elements t
hat can cause magnesium levels to be reduced, and how to determine
the amount of vitamin B-6 to use is repeated wherever relevant.

The book starts out telling you how to interpret a hair test for mercury
and other heavy metals. I provide a step by step discussion of this
with figures to make it easy to do.

Next, I actually interpret some example hair tests that are particularly
compelling in terms of them being real people diagnosed with horrible
diseases that have no good treatments who turned out to have a heavy
metal problem instead. This should provide some motivation to study
the rest of the book carefully.

Following the introductory examples are some graphs giving my best
estimates1regarding what fraction of sick people have
heavy metal poisoning or other specific problems underlying their
conditions. This is very useful in understanding why a hair test
is worth doing early on.

Having explained how mercury affects hair test results, I discuss
the other toxic elements, how useful hair testing is for checking them,
how likely the test is to be falsely normal2 or falsely
positive3 (and why this might happen), and give a brief
description of what kinds of things happen with people who have too
much of each toxic metal in them.

Once I have discussed the toxic elements, I discuss the meaning of
the essential element levels as measured in hair. High hair levels do
not always mean high body levels – for example, hair zinc levels go up
when the body can’t hold it in. Some of the essential elements can be
toxic if they build up to a high enough level. I discuss briefly
what the essential elements do for us, and what happens to people who
end up with toxic levels of them.

Then I provide information on what other kinds of information you can
derive from a hair test regarding how someone’s body is working,
such as whether they have too much stress, poor digestion, have adrenal
issues or thyroid problems.

Following this, I provide many, many example hair tests – actual case
studies – with interpretation and background information as to what
is going on with the person whose test it is. All of the tests used
in this book are real tests from real people and accurate information is
provided about what was going on with them, what they did, and what happened.

After the examples of useful, informative hair tests I provide examples
of why you need to make sure the right test is ordered and the right
information written on the test order form by showing an assortment of
hair tests for a family of four where some tests were ordered improperly
and the interpretation changed when a corrected test report based
on accurate age, sex, and type of test desired was issued.

Following this, I provide a very brief discussion of what to do based on
the test results, e. g. how to chelate heavy metals. Hopefully this
discussion will help you avoid the use of harmful or ineffective protocols,
but it is BRIEF and necessarily omits much detail. Anyone wishing to actually
pursue any of these would be wise to consider researching other
materials (e. g. Illness: Diagnosis and Treatment).

Finally, I provide an appendix with the equations and numerical probabilities
that underlie the counting rules approach, as well as an appendix providing
information on how to deal with tests from other laboratories if you cannot
possibly get a Doctor's Data or Great Plains Laboratory test.

Peer review is considered an important part of modern medicine. This book
has been peer reviewed by relevant experts and I have addressed all the
reviewers’ concerns.

Footnotes

Made by comparing published information from which underlying causes can
be determined with patient reports regarding success or failure of
proper detoxification to bring significant lasting improvement. Since
outcome studies for alternative medicine treatments based on politically
incorrect diagnoses (for example, how many autistic children are cured
by mercury chelation) are not yet available in the mainstream medical
literature I rely on patient or caregiver reports when these are numerous
and informative enough to generate good statistical data).

This is referred to as alpha error in statistics.

This is referred to as alpha error in statistics.

Excerpt from the book: Reasons to check
for heavy metal poisoning

There are six basic reasons to check for heavy metal poisoning:

Problems suggestive of heavy metals

A health condition with a poor expected outcome

A history of or a high risk of

Health problems the docgtor can't find a cause (or a cure) for

A relative has a heavy metal problem without a large exposure

One person has several apparently unrelated health problems

Health conditions with poor expected outcomes are things like Parkinson's
disease, borderline personality disorder, autism, multiple sclerosis,
lupus erythrematosus. After all, heavy metal intoxication is easily
treatable so it is prudent to make sure the person doesn’t really have it.

History of cancer is a reason to exclude heavy metal intoxication since
most cancers are environmental in origin, not genetically determined1.

Health problems that the doctor can’t find a cause (or if they assert
a cause, can’t find a cure) for are things like fibromyalgia,
chronic fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome, ADHD, chemical sensitivity, or
severe allergies.

Most cases of heavy metal poisoning today are due to people with a genetic
predisposition to accumulate some metal. The relatives of these people
have a good chance of sharing this predisposition and need to be checked.
Also note that I have seen many family sets of hair tests, and the husbands
and wives almost always both have heavy metal problems or neither do. Most
of the heavy metal toxicities are known to affect mood and personality
which apparently leads to people with heavy metal problems getting together.

One person having the misfortune to have several unrelated health problems is
quite unlikely. When one person DOES have a lot of health problems, even if
they are mundane ones, it makes sense to check and be sure they aren’t all
due to heavy metal toxicity.

Environmental and heritable factors in the causation of cancer--analyses
of cohorts of twins from Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. By Lichtenstein
et al. in the New England Journal of Medicine, volume 343, number 2,
pages 78-85, July 13th, 2000.

Excerpt from the book:
Why worry about heavy metals?

The federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) did a
study1 based on blood and urine samples taken
from 3,800 people in 1999. CDC found that 10% of young
children and women of child bearing age had mercury levels
high enough that the children or unborn babies may reasonably
be expected to suffer health damage.

Previously the National Research Council (NRC) had estimated that
60,000 children were born annually with too much mercury in their
system - a HUGE number - but this CDC study shows that was a
substantial underestimate.

To make matters worse, until 20042 these children
received vast quantities of highly toxic organic mercury in
their vaccinations in addition to the already high levels
present in their bodies!

Other CDC studies showed that in the 1990’s, 4.4% of children
had too much lead in them. Since almost none of them received
treatment, it is still there, making them less intelligent and
functional than they should be. The good news is that in 2001,
only 2.2% of young children had too much lead. The bad news
is that 2.2% of the population is an incredibly high number.
We are talking about roughly a million little children with
brain damaging chemicals in their system that nobody is doing
anything about, and maybe 2 million older children in the same situation.

Over the last 30 years the “threshold” for lead in children’s
blood has been reduced from 45 to 10. Current studies3 show t
hat a blood level of 10 corresponds to an average loss of 7 IQ points.
Of course, half the people lose more than this, half less, since it
is an average. And of course adults who were children back when 45
was an acceptable blood level might have lost 32 IQ points due to lead
levels physicians didn’t consider worth doing anything about. To put
this in proper perspective, 100 is an average IQ. People with an
IQ of 68 usually can’t live on their own as adults, they need to
be taken care of in a group home or institution.

There is a lot of discussion of the hazards of mercury in fish. In fact,
women of childbearing age should not eat more than one can of tuna a week
if that is their only source of mercury exposure due
to the risks it poses to their unborn children. It is politically
incorrect to talk about the facts that fish mercury is a much smaller
source of exposure for the mother and her unborn child than dental
amalgam fillings, and is much smaller for the child than infant
vaccinations were until last year. Unfortunately, once mercury was
removed from all existing childhood vaccines, flu shots were added t
o the list of vaccinations children routinely receive and these
still do contain mercury.

Also curiously absent from the news is much discussion of the effect
of the arsenic treated wood that suddenly replaced creosote treated
wood in the early 1990’s. This new kind of wood has dramatically
increased children’s and adults’ exposure to arsenic. There is also
little discussion of antimony from flame retardant pajamas and bedding.
Both arsenic and antimony are well known to be toxic, and are being
observed at high levels in surprising numbers of people by those few
doctors who check. “Mainstream medicine” says don’t bother to check for
antimony or arsenic unless people work in factories or occupations
using it. Unfortunately this attitude comes from older experience
gathered before these poisons were placed in every home as wood
preservatives and flame retardants.

The primary problems with heavy metals are that people’s metabolism of them
varies greatly, and that individual exposure can also vary greatly.
Most people are not exposed to unusual amounts, and clear the metals
at an “average” rate. These people are fine. It is the people who clear
the metals slowly or who are exposed to more than usual that have trouble.
This presents health care providers with a very confusing situation
where everyone seems to be exposed to about the same amount of heavy
metals and most people are fine. Thus many doctors “don’t get it,”
because it is often impossible to figure out that someone has an
unusual exposure level, or had a large past exposure, and it is
also difficult to figure out how a given individual’s metabolism for
heavy metals works.

We have a situation today where we know large numbers of people
accumulate too much toxic metal and suffer ill effects from that.
Unfortunately we have a system full of health care providers who
weren’t taught how to tell if you are one of them, but were taught
not to order any tests to check. Since metal toxicity doesn’t fit
the general “medical model” of disease, which is that either you are
OK or you are obviously sick (that is, your arm is either broken
or not, you either have the flu or you don’t) health care providers
may have trouble recognizing that there is a problem until it is severe.

The most important reason to worry about heavy metals is quite
straightforward. The kinds of problems heavy metals cause are
generally considered to be untreatable by mainstream medicine,
and to have poor outcomes. Heavy metal poisoning IS
treatable, treatment usually has a good outcome, and neither testing
nor treatment are particularly expensive or unpleasantIS. So
whenever someone has a condition that is chronic and has a negative
impact on their life it makes a lot of sense to check for heavy metals.

The study is not yet published as of the time this book was
written. It is expected to appear in Morbidity and Mortality
Weekly Reports, MMWR. The prior study for 1999 is reported
there and can be downloaded on the internet at
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm5008.pdf.

While thimerosal containing vaccines were taken off the
market earlier, many doctors continued to administer their
stock of thimerosal containing vaccinations until those expired
– a year or more after their manufacturing date. For practical
purposes vaccines are made and bought a year in advance so
children were still receiving mercury laden vaccines until 2004.

Excerpt from the book:
What textbooks say about cancer

Because the dominant belief in medicine is that toxicity problems
are an occupational hazard, most research on metals causing cancer
(and other diseases) has been performed on people exposed in the w
orkplace. Regardless of where toxic metals come from, if they get
into someone’s body they behave however they are going to behave.
The real issue is whether the metals are there, and one way to
determine that is a hair test.

One would expect toxicology books to mention heavy metals and cancer
if the association is well known, and in fact they do. In
Clinical Toxicology, by Ford, first edition (2001), page 718:

“Inorganic arsenic is a recognized human carcinogen,
primarily of the respiratory tract and skin (International Agency
for Research on Cancer group 1 and U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency group A).”

Textbooks on cancer would be expected to have significant coverage
of any links between heavy metals and cancer, and they do. Perusing
Clinical Oncology by Abeloff, second edition (2000),
we find much useful information.

Page 289: “Medicinal use of inorganic arsenic was
associated with skin cancers in the early 20th century. More
recently, excess skin cancer has been observed in populations
exposed to arsenic-contaminated drinking water.”

and

“Reports of skin and lung cancers among vineyard workers with
exposure to arsenic fungicides and pesticides appeared during the late 1950s.”

and

Page 290: “Elevated risk of prostate and lung cancer among
workers exposed to cadmium has been reported.”

and

“Experimental investigations indicate that the hexavalent
salts of chromium are highly carcinogenic, whereas trivalent chromium
is not carcinogenic.”

With mainstream medicine’s focus on occupational exposure which usually
happens by breathing dust at work we would expect to find this topic
covered in relevant texts if an association between heavy metals and
cancer was believed to be important. In fact, the Textbook of
Respiratory Medicine by Murray and Nadel, third edition (2000)
has a lot to say on this topic:

“The increased lung cancer risk prevalent in nickel refinery
workers was initially attributed to exposure to metallic nickel and
nickel carbonyl, which are carcinogenic in animals. However, subsequent
epidemiologic evidence has suggested that exposure to combinations of
nickel sulfides and oxides encountered in the refining industry
increases lung cancer risk.”

Page 1403: “Follow-up from a cohort study of cadmium
smelter workers reported a relative risk of 1.49 not explainable
by smoking.” (The risk is for lung cancer).

The role of heavy metals in causing cancer is so well known that
basic medical texts covering internal medicine and pathology also discuss it.

In table 193-2 of Cecil Textbook of Medicine, 21st
edition (2000) arsenic, chromium and nickel are listed as being carcinogenic.

Table 8-3 on page 274 of Robbins Pathologic Basis of Disease,
by Cotran, Kumar and Collins, sixth edition (1999) lists arsenic
and arsenic compounds as causing lung and skin cancer as well as
hemangiosarcoma1, beryllium and its compounds as causing lung
cancer, cadmium and its compounds as causing prostate cancer,
chromium and its compounds as causing lung cancer, as well as
nickel and its compounds as causing lung and nasal cancer.

Checking the Textbook of Natural Medicine by Pizzorno
and Murray, second edition (1999) we find on page 168:

“One study which evaluated bladder cancer mortality
over a 5-year period in 26 counties in the US, found that bladder
cancer was significantly higher in counties with documented
arsenic exposure.”

In addition to excessive levels of toxic elements being carcinogenic,
inadequate levels of certain nutrient elements may also increase
the risk of cancer. For example, in Sleisenger & Fordtran's
Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease by Feldman,
seventh edition (2002), the authors state that low dietary
selenium can cause colon cancer. Low levels of selenium (and
other relevant nutrient elements) may be detected by a hair test
as long as mineral transport is normal and orderly.

There is an extremely large amount of journal literature on the
topic of what causes cancer. The most useful study is
Environmental and Heritable Factors in the Causation of
Cancer: Analyses of Cohorts of Twins from Sweden, Denmark and
Finland, by Lichtenstein et al., New England Journal
of Medicine, volume 343, number 2, pages 78-85 (2000).

“Inherited Genetic factors make a minor contribution
to susceptibility of most types of neoplasms. This finding
indicates that the environment has the principal role in
causing sporadic cancer.”

and

“We conclude that the overwhelming contributor to the
causation of cancer in the population of twins that we studied
was the environment.”

If you go from the research literature to the clinics of health care
providers who actually do screen for heavy metal problems in cancer
patients and look over the tests it is quite apparent that mercury
and lead show up in a lot of these people in addition to arsenic,
nickel and chromium.

Heavy metal exposure is one risk factor that can be easily
screened for with a hair test, and for which there are effective
means of removing the cancer causing material from the body
if it is found.

a malignant tumor derived from blood vessel cells

Excerpt from the book:
What textbooks say about schizophrenia

Textbook of Clinical Neurology, by Goetz, second edition,
2003, says in the section on mercury poisoning:
“Psychotic episodes with delirium, hallucinations,
and motor hyperactivity have been reported.”

Lead, mercury, carbon disulfide are listed as possible causes of
acute psychosis in table 11-2 on page 107 of the
Textbook of Primary Care Medicine, Noble,
third edition, 2001.

Several other standard medical texts say that mercury
exposure should be ruled out in anyone showing up at the
hospital with an unexpected psychotic episode. In addition
to this, there is journal literature directly linking mercury
amalgam dental fillings to schizophrenia1.

The sixteen year old boy whose hair test is presented on
page 49 started out as a happy and friendly child. He was
athletic, he enjoyed sports a lot and he was quite involved
in them. He would sometimes play more than one sport in a
season – great fun for him but his parents still remember
how tiring it was to bring him to all the practices and games!
School often did not come easy to him. He would spend long
hours doing homework (without the need for parental pressure)
and get by with average grades despite this great effort.
He was able to relate to people of all ages, was well liked
and got along with everyone. He passed the lifeguard test
and planned to be a lifeguard the next summer. One of his
goals was to play college football.

Around his sixteenth birthday he started to complain to his
parents that the kids at school were talking about him.
The parents didn’t recognize this as suggesting any mental
disturbance and simply hoped things would work themselves out.
Then suddenly one day the boy was locking doors and saying
that people were trying to break in to get him. He told his
parents that the people on TV were talking to him. He was also
hearing voices. He was very upset by this. Realizing at
this point that something was seriously wrong, the parents
took him to the emergency psychiatric ward, where he was kept
as a patient for three weeks until he was stabilized on medication.

He was initially diagnosed as having manic depression2
and treated aggressively with Risperdal and lithium. He gained
weight, paced constantly, couldn’t focus on anything, showed no
emotions and had a very different personality. The parents
thought he was overmedicated and, with physician supervision,
started reducing the Rispderal dose. The boy subsequently
developed heavy breathing, stopped talking, and acted like
a zombie. He was brought back to the doctors who decided
he was having another psychotic episode. By this time the
parents had educated themselves, declined to let the doctors
keep their son as an inpatient, and convinced the doctors to
treat him as a schizophrenic rather than bipolar since his
symptoms fit that more closely. The lithium was dropped,
and Abilify was substituted for the Risperdal in hopes of
lowering the side effects, and he was released to his parents’ care.

The boy still had profound personality changes, still paced
a lot, and did a lot of smiling for no apparent reason.
He could not stay focused on anything and really couldn’t
do his schoolwork. He would show up and dress for sports
but didn’t play in competition. He didn’t talk much and
couldn’t really carry on a conversation.

His new psychiatrist asked the parents not to dismiss the
diagnosis of bipolar disorder too quickly, but held out
no real hope of anything other than a lifetime of being
medicated to the gills and nonfunctional regardless of
whether they eventually decided the boy was schizophrenic
or bipolar. From the parents’ perspective the first year
was Hell. The (mainstream medical) doctors offered little
help, seemed to have a narrow view of the possible differential
diagnosis, and mostly seemed to make their son worse with
their prescribed treatments. These doctors told the parents
that their son would be like this for the rest of his
life and the parents needed to prepare for that.

Based on their own research regarding possible etiologic agents for
their son’s condition, the parents decided to get a hair
test done to check for heavy metal problems since some
of these (mercury, manganese) are well known to cause
mental disorders and are mentioned in standard textbooks
as problems that should be ruled out when someone unexpectedly
has a psychotic episode. The boy’s hair test is shown
on the facing page ...

Giving chelation a try seemed like a reasonable thing to
do on this basis as a possible alternative to a lifetime of
dysfunction and heavy medication....

The father was immediately convinced that his son needed
chelation, but the mother resisted it at first because
the doctors told her it was dangerous, couldn’t possibly
help, that a lot of people got hurt by it, that DMSA was
not an FDA approved drug (it is), and managed to frighten
the mother into believing that she would hurt her son
in some manner if she tried to chelate him.

The father had read enough on chelation and mercury –
mostly on the internet – to be able to discuss these
issues intelligently with the doctors. He would
attempt to have reasoned discussions with the doctors
while his wife listened in. A typical encounter would
go like this: first the doctors would say that the son
couldn’t possibly have a mercury problem because he
didn’t have high levels in his blood or urine. The when
the father pointed out that even mainstream medical textbooks
like Harrison’s Textbook of Internal Medicine
and Cecil Textbook of Medicine said that blood
levels only showed current exposure the doctors would
reluctantly admit he was right, that they weren’t
familiar with the subject, then would refuse to prescribe
DMSA because they weren’t familiar with it!

The mother became convinced that chelation was worth
trying when her husband showed her on the FDA website
that DMSA was an approved medication for heavy metal
chelation, and when she saw her husband argue rings
around doctor after doctor, none of whom offered any
reasonable discussion as to why heavy metal toxicity
should not be considered and treated. Eventually the
parents were able to find a doctor who was willing to
prescribe DMSA and provide appropriate care for their son.

After 6 months and 23 chelation rounds ... the parents
have been able to lower their son’s dose of Abilify
substantially. The school called and said the son
was suddenly talking to people again! School officials
continued to call every so often reporting further
improvement. The wrestling coach said he could see
the boy growing up before his eyes – by the end of
the season he was acting somewhat normal, was able
to compete in wrestling, and took first place in
one of the wrestling tournaments.

While their son still has a ways to go, the parents
could see after 23 chelation weekends that their son
would become normal again in the foreseeable future.
In fact, they were able to see progress after the third
weekend. In addition to behavioral improvements,
chronic acne on the boy’s back suddenly disappeared
and hasn’t come back. The parents say the difference
in their son’s condition after six months of
chelation is like night and day.

The parents report that chelation can cause increased
symptoms as a side effect. While the symptoms come
and go, they don’t all come at once, and when they
go, they are usually gone for good.

The boy’s psychiatrist continues to insist that chelation
can’t possibly be doing any good and now offers the
explanation that the boy must never have had bipolar
disorder or schizophrenia and is just getting better
on his own.

This is what the father has to say about his experiences
over the last year and a half:

“This whole situation with my son really
opened my eyes. These mainstream doctors will talk against
chelation like they are experts. But, I will sit and talk
the facts with them. They will then tell me that they
really do not know much about it. You would think that
they see the improvements in my son and look into it.
With what happen to my son my eyes are now open to the
toxic metal problem. I am amazed at how many people I see
that they or their children could possibly have this problem
and are not being treated properly. My sister has found
out that her problems could be due to this toxic metal
poisoning. She had her fillings taken out and will be
chelating. Too bad a doctor did not look into this possibility
for her years ago. I believe chelation saved my son a
life of misery. Look at how many other people who are
suffering that could be helped as well. I try my best
to let other people know. I just hope some of them will
give it a try and look into it as a possible solution to
their problems.”

Excerpt from the book:
What textbooks say about problems with children's development

Standard medical textbooks point out the need to check for
heavy metal problems in children with developmental disorders.
For example, Clinical Toxicology, Ford, first edition,
2001: “Chronic lead poisoning should be considered in
the differential diagnosis of any child with neurocognitive
deficits, attentional impairment, or developmental delay.”

Textbooks also point out that despite what is in essence an
advertising and public relations campaign by the makers and
users of childhood vaccines there really is no reason to
consider them proven safe.

"The increase in the number of children diagnosed with
autism is so spectacular, that it is unlikely to be merely
because health care workers are paying greater attention
to this condition. Despite apparent links between measles,
mumps, and rubella (MMR) immunizations and autism,
opposed by energetic disclaimers, the definitive epidemiologic
study that would distinguish causation, a rare inordinate
susceptibility, from chance association has not been performed."

Recent research demonstrates that heavy metal problems are
quite common in children – so it is important to check for
them early on. The US Government’s Centers for Disease Control
periodically conducts studies to determine what toxic exposure
members of the general population have. The 2003 study found
that 10% of children and 10% of women of childbearing age had
mercury levels above safe limits. They also found that 2.2%
of children had lead above safe levels. This is down from 4%
of children who had too much lead in similar studies
20-30 years ago....

A hair test (and consideration of the individual child’s history
and situation) seems like a reasonable way to screen children
with developmental disorders for heavy metals. As you can see
from the tests below, when people do get hair tests on their
impaired children heavy metal problems often turn up! While
genetically based autism and related conditions are often
presumed to be completely unresponsive to medical treatment,
heavy metal problems are easily treated and children with
them show dramatic improvement in their neurodevelopmental
status on detox....

A pretty obvious case where screening for heavy metal exposure
would be appropriate is an autistic little girl who has no
known risk factors, no family history suggestive of any genetic
issues, and whom the pediatrician thinks is a textbook case.
This little girl’s hair test is on the next page....

This hair test suggests that the girl’s autism is a consequence
of mercury intoxication. Chelation led to improvement in
her autistic symptoms, confirming this.....

At about the same time as the sister1 was being
evaluated, her younger brother began to exhibit problems.
He had shown normal development for the first 16-18 months,
then regressed into autism. At age 6 this boy had no expressive
language. He had never been able to say a single word.
It was the speech therapist’s impression that he did try to
say some words but was unable to pronounce them well enough
that even his mother could figure it out....

The brother received far more vaccinations than the sister
and they all contained mercury as a preservative (in the
form of thimerosal). Since his body holds onto mercury
unusually well this apparently was enough, when combined
with whatever unknown exposures he may have been receiving
from other sources, to make him autistic.

Based on these test results the parents chose to detoxify
their children through chelation....

Despite having no expressive language at all at age 6,
by age 8, after 61 weekend rounds of chelation, he was
articulate, normally expressive for his age, and took
part in his second grade class’ stage production, singing
and participating so well that he was indistinguishable
from the other children much to the amazement of his
parents, teachers, and other children’s parents who
had known him in kindergarten and first grade.

After 61 rounds of chelation this autistic boy is far from
cured, but has undergone dramatic improvement and continues
to improve with further chelation. If he had continued on
in the state he was in at age 6, he would have been
institutionalized for life as an adult because he couldn’t
even make his needs known, much less take care of himself.
Now, at age 8, even if no further progress occurs, he will
likely grow up to be able to live independently, hold a job
and take care of himself, a dramatic improvement in his
quality of life. The progress reasonably expected on further
chelation should enhance his quality of life much more in
terms of future health, happiness, social relationships,
educational opportunities and employment options.

A different girl than the one mentioned above.

Excerpt from the book:
Calcium (Ca)

Calcium levels in hair often move in the opposite direction
to body inventory. High hair calcium suggests calcium loss
and wasting. High hair calcium will occasionally be due to
very elevated serum calcium, parathyroid problems or excessive
vitamin D levels but these are uncommon (serum calcium is
part of most standard “chem panel” blood tests). Low hair
calcium may suggest deficiency or may indicate low intake
with adequate body levels. Diets which do not contain
dairy products are typically much lower in calcium t
han the average American diet.

Thus the apparently paradoxical suggestion is made by
people who know how to use hair tests that people with
elevated hair calcium should consume more calcium.

Excerpt from the book:
Mercury poisoning

Mercury poisoning is the most common heavy metal
problem. It is also difficult to diagnose because
the exact problems it causes vary so much from person
to person. There is also some confusion in the health
care community as to how to interpret clinical laboratory
test results. There is intense controversy because the
major cause of mercury poisoning today is health care
and many doctors understandably find this very upsetting.
Given these factors I am including a separate fairly long
section on mercury. Additional descriptions can be found
on pages 25-29 of Amalgam Illness:
Diagnosis and Treatment or in the medical
literature1.

Reviewing some of the key factors noted in standard
medical texts is a good place to start. Medical
textbooks are conservative in the material they
present. Controversy regarding the nature of mercury
poisoning or the lack of utility of certain tests to
detect it may be due to the emotionally charged nature
of this subject, not to medical or scientific questions.

Erethism is generally mentioned as the
most common and important finding in mercury poisoning.

Clinical Toxicology,Ford, first edition, 2001:

"Erethism is a constellation of signs and symptoms,
including shyness, emotional lability, nervousness,
insomnia, memory problems, and inability to concentrate."

Merritt's Textbook of Neurology, ninth edition, 1995:

"the psychological changes which include timidity,
seclusiveness and irritability have been referred to
as 'erethism'."

Textbook of Medicine, Cecil, seventh edition, 1948

"Erethismus mercurialis, a peculiar psychic
disturbance characterized by ready excitability and a
strange shyness in the presence of strangers, a symptom
of great interest and importance; insomnia; headache;
vertigo; mental depression and dullness; and, rarely,
hallucinations."

Erethism is the constellation of personality changes
that appear early on in mercury poisoning, often
before other symptoms are present.

I have included a description of mercury poisoning
from an older textbook written in the days when
occupational poisoning was common and doctors had
to rely on clinical skills rather than lab tests to
make good diagnoses.

Textbook of Medicine,Cecil, seventh edition 1948:

"Tremors of the orbit, lips, tongue, fingers and l
imbs. These are usually moderately fine at first, but at
intervals become a coarse and jerking. They may become very
severe and in rare instances involve contractions of the
limbs of such violence as to require restraint. The
tremor is intentional and subsides during rest. Under
observation it may increase and diminish, rhythmically
recurring. When it is marked, the patient may require
assistance in eating and in other activities. Weakness of both
the flexor and extensor muscles of the hand and forearm has
been reported, but marked paresis is rarely, if indeed ever,
caused by mercury. Polyneuritis is said to result occasionally
from exposure to mercury. No ataxia occurs and reflexes
are not notably affected.

Modern medical textbooks also make it clear that mercury
from "silver"2 fillings is a potential hazard to
both dental patients and the people who work in the dentist's office.

Harrison's textbook of internal medicine, 14th edition 1998:

"Low-level exposure from dental amalgams may also be
associated with adverse immunologic reactions."

Cecil Textbook of Medicine,21st edition, 2000:

"10% of dental offices have excessive mercury
vapor levels; and accidental spillage can lead to mercury
poisoning."

Textbooks and journal articles cover some of the basic biochemical
phenomena underlying mercury's ability to affect the
body in a wide variety of ways.

Textbook of Clinical Neurology,, Goetz, first edition, 1999,
lists the following in a table on the effects of different heavy
metals under mercury: "Alters cell membranes; causes combination
of: metabolic disturbance, disturbance of Ca+2 homeostasis,
oxidative injury, aberrant protein phosphorylation."

In the journal Endocrinology,volume 89, number 6,
pages 1489-98 (1971), an article entitled Effect of Mercury on
Response of Isolated Fat Cells to Insulin and Lipolytic Hormones
by Jack M. George shows how mercury has physiological
effects that can cause exactly the constellation of problems
seen in type 2 non insulin dependent diabetes: elevated blood
sugar, insulin resistance and weight gain.

One very important question is whether you have to continue
to worry about mercury if a doctor has told you that you
definitely don't have a problem with it, or that you have
something else. Standard medical textbooks make it clear
that mercury poisoning is hard to diagnose and easy to mistake
for something else.

Cecil Textbook of Medicine, 21st edition, 2000:

"With mild exposure, the manifestations are likely to
be subtle and diagnosis is difficult. Insomnia, nervousness,
mild tremor, impaired judgment and coordination, decreased
mental efficiency, emotional lability, headache, fatigue,
loss of sexual drive, and depression are early manifestations
and are often mistakenly ascribed to psychogenic causes."

In a separate section, Cecil also says
"Chronic metal intoxication may also produce a dementing syndrome."

"Chronic mercurialism may be misdiagnosed as
Parkinsonism, depression or Alzheimer's disease."

Merritt"™s Textbook of Neurology, 9th edition, 1995:

"Because of the prominent motor manifestations, confusion
with ALS3 can occur."

Because mercury poisoning is hard to diagnose, many doctors may
order blood or urine tests for mercury. Textbooks point out
that this is not helpful.

Cecil Textbook of Medicine, 21st edition, 2000:

"Because of the body's metabolism of mercury,
blood and urine levels may be unreliable."

Textbooks are also clear on the fact that some children are
very sensitive to mercury and become poisoned at low
levels that don't bother others.

Clinical Toxicology,Ford, first edition, 2001:

"Acrodynia ... Although it is most often postulated
that the etiology of this syndrome is an idiosyncratic
hypersensitivity reaction to mercury because of the lack of
correlation with mercury levels, many of the symptoms
resemble recognized mercury poisoning."

With medical textbooks saying that mercury poisoning is
difficult to diagnose and can cause a wide variety of
problems, a thorough description of it is necessary.

Mercury's effects on thought and emotion cause the most troubling symptoms.

Mercury poisoning changes people's emotional responses to things.
Irritability, argumentativeness, avoidant behavior, anxiety,
shyness, being easily embarrassed, and a desire to avoid
strangers lead to social withdrawal and makes it difficult
for them to relate to others. The victim generally feel that
their behavior patterns are appropriate even when this is clearly not so.

The argumentativeness may reach the point where it is
impossible to hold a job or maintain most social relationships.

Fatigue, lassitude and depression further limit social
interaction. The depression brings feelings of futility,
hopelessness, discouragement, and impending doom. Minor
problems become overwhelming and insurmountable, while
these emotional changes themselves are frightening.

Feelings of enjoyment and happiness become less and less
common. There is no motivation for important tasks, fun
activities, or day to day routine.

Intelligence gradually deteriorates. Previously bright persons
become dull and slow thinking. They suffer from a progressive
decline specifically affecting short term memory as well as
the faculties for logical reasoning. Thus their ability to
do things like balance the checkbook, do math, or play chess
suffers. Thoughts become heavy, repetitive and pedantic.
Creative thinking becomes progressively more difficult.
Verbal expression suffers from an inability to select the
right words to convey their meaning.

"Brain fog" sets in with a poor ability to concentrate and pay attention.

Men frequently become quietly depressive and withdrawn
while women more often become anxious, shy, fearful and high strung.

Symptoms come and go over a period of months or years. Life seems
to progress in fits and starts, with periods of productivity
and social enjoyment coming less and less often as poisoning progresses.

In severe cases, mercury poisoning can cause psychosis. Psychosis
interferes with a person's thinking, emotions, memory, communication,
behavior and interpretation of reality. When sufficiently impaired
in all these areas that they can not meet the ordinary demands of
life, a person is psychotic.

Psychotic people often have very disorganized behavior which may be
childlike or infantile, an inappropriate mood for the situation
they are in, poor ability to control their impulses, speak in an
incoherent jumble of words, and may have delusions and hallucinations
(usually without an understanding of the fact that these are not real).
Thought processes are often quite disrupted, with the psychotic
person's train of thought seeming perfectly logical to them but
being at best very loosely connected as far as anyone else is concerned.

Mercury can impair the brain's electrical regulation and cause
epilepsy (either grand mal or petit mal varieties). Poor electrical
regulation that is not bad enough to cause epileptic seizures
can cause impulsivity and sudden strong emotions not rationally
related to what is going on. It can also cause sudden confusion
or disorientation or loss of train of thought.

Mercury affects the senses. The most well known effect is numbness
in the hands, feet, and around the mouth (the medical term for this
is stocking and gloves parasthesia). There can be a generalized
reduction in sensitivity to touch and pain which is often more
pronounced in children.

The sense of smell becomes less acute. While the ability to perceive
sound is not reduced the person loses the ability to pick meaningful
sounds out of background. For example, they are not able to understand
speech directed at them at a party, or if music is playing.

The ability to focus the eyes and to control the iris progressively
deteriorates, as does convergence - the ability to bring both eyes
to bear on nearby objects so as to see one object with depth
perception rather than to have double vision. People with convergence
problems have difficulty keeping their place while reading
and find reading for long periods quite tiring.

Color vision may also become less acute and colors do not appear as bright.

Mercury poisoned children typically have learning or developmental
disabilities and trouble relating to peers. The poor visual
convergence and accommodation due to mercury poisoning is a common
cause of dyslexia and reading difficulties.

Children who are poisoned in infancy or before birth may have
hyperextensible joints, hypermobile hips, and may lay in crib with
their feet up by their head.

Early physical symptoms include dizziness, tinnitus (ringing in the ears),
insomnia and daytime drowsiness. The biological clock runs slow.
The poisoned person's body wants to wake up late and stay up late.
It takes them a long time to "get going" in the morning.

There may be a tendency towards diarrhea - often alternating
with constipation, cold hands and feet, a tendency towards
sweating (some people have the opposite symptom and do not sweat
at all, which is more common in women), flushing or reddening
of the skin - particularly on the face and neck. Some people
blush frequently, but others do not blush at all.. Digestive
disturbances are also common.

The skin becomes dry, athlete's foot and toenail fungus progress,
and the insides of the ankles, particularly behind the ankle bone
and a bit above it become dry, itchy, flaky and peel.
This becomes annoying enough to keep the victim up at night.
There may also be hair loss. Hair may thin out or it may fall
out in patches leaving bald spots.

Tremors eventually appear. There may be twitching of the eyelids.
Poor coordination of the lips and tongue may render speech more
difficult to understand. Handwriting deteriorates and eventually
becomes illegible.

Mercury affects the blood coagulation mechanism and leads to
easy bruising and bleeding in some people.

Women with mercury problems often have menstrual problems,
irregularities, and may suffer from infertility.

Mercury also interferes with the brain's regulation of
water balance and causes excessive urination.

Mercury can reduce the function of the adrenal and thyroid
glands. Typically it does this enough to make the person
miserable, but not enough to make laboratory tests abnormal.

Mercury poisons the immune system, making fighting off minor
illnesses more difficult. Immune dysregulation can also lead
to increased allergy, asthma and other respiratory complaints.
It is also a common trigger for autoimmune conditions such
as lupus, multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis. In
physiologic terms, mercury poisoning causes an imbalance
between T helper type 1 and T helper type 2 cells along
with reduced activity of natural killer (NK) cells. This
is the same problem that zinc deficiency causes and is most
likely due to an acquired zinc deficiency caused by mercury's
derangement of mineral transport.

Heart racing (the medical term is tachycardia) is quite common
in people with mercury poisoning. The heart rate may vary
dramatically over a period of a few minutes for no apparent reason.
Heart pain (angina) may occur. Doctors may hear intermittent
heart murmurs and may find a flattened T wave or a prolonged QT
interval on an EKG.

Mercury induced derangement of mineral transport almost invariably
results in reduced body zinc levels (usually reflected by high hair
zinc levels), poor zinc absorption, increased loss of zinc in the
stool and urine, and difficulty concentrating zinc into cells where
it is needed. People with low zinc due to mercury problems typically
need levels of zinc supplementation that would be excessive in normal
individuals. Mercury toxic people tolerate high level zinc
supplementation for prolonged periods of many years. Deranged
mineral transport also typically results in a need for large amounts
of magnesium and molybdenum. Sometimes manganese or selenium is
also needed, sometimes excessive selenium is retained. Copper levels
are usually somewhat high and copper supplementation is usually harmful.

Blood and urine porphyrins are often elevated in mercury toxic
people though this test is seldom performed

It is not unusual for MCV and MCH on a blood count (CBC) to
be mildly elevated (suggesting B-12/folate deficiency anemia)
in people with mercury poisoning, even when they have more than
adequate levels of B-12.

The liver enzymes AST and ALT (also called SGOT and SGPT) may be
mildly elevated when a "chemistry panel" test is done on someone
with mercury poisoning, though this is not the rule.

Cholesterol may go up quite a bit in the earlier stages of mercury
poisoning. In some people it later falls due to inhibited steroid
synthesis, typically in conjuction with inability to make enough
cortisol and DHEA for their body's needs.

Blood sugar may go up (and may be diagnosed as type 2
diabetes) due to mercury poisoning.

In chronic mercury poisoning there is seldom any evidence of
the kidney problems which are present in acute poisoning.

The most common result from a person"™s doctor ordering standard
tests like a CBC, chem panel, urinalysis and thyroid test on
someone with a fairly serious mercury poisoning problem is
that all the tests come back normal, or close enough that
the doctor doesn't consider the results significant.

In certain circumstances mercury poisoning may be recognized
in an 'acute' phase. For example, after placement of fillings
which extend below the gumline, after placement or replacement
of several fillings, after placement of a dissimilar metal
crown or bridge over or against amalgam.. In this earlier
phase there may be red blood cells in the urine, greatly
elevated urinary porphyrins leading to pink - not red-tinged - urine,
burning urination, as well as the above symptoms. Very
high exposure levels cause nausea, loss of appetite and
diarrhea. In general acute poisoning leads to much more
pronounced physical symptoms and much less pronounced mental
and emotional symptoms. As time progresses the mental and
emotional symptoms slowly increase.

The review by Gerstner and Huff (Clinical Toxicology
of Mercury, Journal of Toxicology and Environmental
Health volume 2, pages 491-526 (1997) ) is particularly
good. Also the descriptions in the 1948 and 1955 editions
of Textbook of Medicine by Cecil are excellent though
more modern editions have less useful descriptions.
Any pre-1972 edition of Diseases of Occupations by
Hunter also contains accurate and useful descriptions of
what mercury poisoned people are like. For a firsthand
description of mercury poisoning see
http://www.stanford.edu/~bcalhoun/AStock.htm.

Silver amalgam fillings are 50% mercury, and approximately
30% silver plus 20% other materials. It would be more
accurate to refer to them as mercury fillings.

ALS is amylotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as
Lou Gherig's disease. In the United Kingdom it is
referred to as motor neuron disease.

Excerpt from book: Iron (Fe)

Hair iron is not a good measure of body burden. It does not
correlate well with other measures of iron status such a
s ferritin, transferrin, red blood cell levels, etc. The blood
test for ferritin is the most accurate and useful guide for
body levels of iron, though it may be unreliable in the presence o
f inflammatory disease conditions. Measurements of serum iron
or red blood cell iron are much less accurate reflections of body
burden as they may be influenced by many factors....

Low hair iron is suggestive of lead exposure, but not a
definitive sign of it. Generally any reduction in body
iron stores caused by heavy metal toxicity is
NOT reflected in hair iron levels....

Some hair testing experts believe that certain cancers
sometimes cause elevation of hair iron, though very high
iron is not often due to cancer. Also, hair iron is often
normal in cancer patients. Due to this weak correlation and
the frightening nature of cancer I would suggest that vastly
elevated hair iron (red range) in the presence of normal
mineral transport suggests the merits of reasonable routine
cancer screening that might be relevant to the person’s
condition. Very high iron levels with deranged mineral
transport should not be considered suggestive of cancer.
People should not allow themselves to be frightened by
the test result (or by an excited health care provider)
but rather should consider this to be a factor such as
smoking or occupational exposure to asbestos or certain
chemicals that means such screening is a prudent part of
routine medical care even though it is likely not to turn
up anything.

Excerpt from book: Thallium (TL)

It is relatively difficult to establish good reference ranges for
every element under every circumstance. Despite the fact that
the statistical definition of the Doctor’s Data
reference ranges would reasonably be expected to lead to
a bar on the plot for thallium most of the time, it is common
not to see one.

Blood thallium levels are often falsely normal (low) in poisoned
people. Urine levels in a 24 hour collection are somewhat more
reliable but false normals are still common. Hair levels are
often informative but no estimate is available at present
regarding false normal thallium levels in hair from toxic people.

Most thallium salts are colorless, odorless, and tasteless.

Thallium is concentrated into certain cells because it binds to
a specific site on a cell surface mineral transport protein
that is normally used to take potassium up in exchange for
sodium (the biochemical term is Na,K ATPase). It concentrates
particularly well into the brain, kidney, and the part of the
heart called the myocardium. In addition to binding to the
sulfhydryl groups of various enzymes, thallium specifically
attaches to vitamin B2 – riboflavin – and inactivates it.
Without vitamin B2 fats can’t be burned for energy and the
main route that carbohydrates take into the energy producing
Krebs cycle through pyruvate is also blocked. Citric acid,
succinic acid, suberic acid and adipic acid go up on an
organic acid test. Only protein can be easily used for energy.

Thallium is also reabsorbed in the kidney by the same
mechanism that retains potassium, so people with low
serum potassium or low potassium intake retain thallium
and are more susceptible to its toxic effects.

The half life for thallium elimination from the body is
variously given in the literature as 8 to 30 days. It
apparently does not clear from the nervous system at a
significant rate since neurological problems may persist for years.

The majority of excreted thallium leaves the body in
the fluids the intestines secrete to help digest food.
Lesser amounts are secreted in the bile and also are
excreted in the urine. About twice as much thallium
leaves the body in feces as in the urine.

The medical literature is full of descriptions of acute
poisoning by large amounts of thallium. Typically the
symptoms start 12-24 hours after the thallium is eaten.
When smaller amounts are eaten the symptoms might not
appear for 24-48 hours. The first symptoms are from the
digestive tract – abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea,
perhaps vomiting, with constipation later. One to a
few days later neurological symptoms appear. There is
hypersensitivity to touch and pain, unusual phantom
sensations, as well as muscle weakness that often
begins in the soles of the feet and the big toe and
slowly spreads up to the body. Movement may also
become clumsy. The pain hypersensitivity can be
so extreme that the brush of a feather can cause
intense pain. The victim may salivate excessively.
There may also be excessive thirst. At this point
a variety of other problems may appear. Psychic
disturbances such as delirium, restlessness, hallucinations
and delusions are common. There may be eye turn or
crossed eyes. Color perception may be altered or reduced.
Blindness (due to optic neuritis) is frequent.
Convulsions or seizures are occasionally seen.
Liver and kidney damage often occur. About a week after
the thallium is eaten the head hair falls out and the
outer part of the eyebrows is lost. Children tend to
develop the psychic disturbances more while adults are
more prone to the weakness, hypersensitivity and heart
regulation problems that come from impairment of the
nerves that run the body.

Heart function is affected and victims are at risk of
sudden cardiac death for at least several weeks.
Heart racing is a common symptom as is elevated blood pressure.

Chronic toxicity does not have the digestive tract problems
or dramatic onset of symptoms that acute toxicity does.
The neurological, psychiatric and vision problems described
above are prominent, hair loss does occur, and there can
be heart problems and high blood pressure due to impairment
of the nerves that run the heart and other internal organs
(autonomic neuropathy in medical terminology). There are
typically also sleep problems. Tremors sometimes occur as
well. The neurological and psychiatric effects can be severe
enough to lead to dementia or psychosis.

A slow blurring or dimness of vision is characteristic, with
loss of both central vision and also mild constriction of
the field of vision.

Thallium does cause toxic porphyria through its effect on the liver.

In chronic toxicity the symptoms may come on slowly and
will usually be subtle rather than dramatic. Mild to
moderate chronic toxicities are quite unlikely to be
diagnosed (e.g. the combination of hair loss, heart
racing and high blood pressure might be misdiagnosed as
too much thyroid hormone.

Excerpt from book: Selenium (Se)

When mineral transport is orderly, hair selenium appears
to accurately reflect at least intake and probably body b
urden as long as you don’t use a selenium or sulfur
containing anti-dandruff shampoo (for example, Selsun
Blue® or the selenium sulfide containing version of
Head and Shoulders®).

Contamination of hair samples by dandruff shampoos
containing selenium or sulfur – which is sometimes
contaminated with selenium – is quite common and accounts
for most observed very high hair selenium levels....

The toxic level of selenium is only about 15 times
higher than the level needed for adequate nutritional
intake. Only copper has a narrower window between
minimum required levels and toxicity. A few people
start to experience mild symptoms of selenium toxicity
at an intake as low as 750 mcg a day (on an adult basis)....

Selenium deficiency causes aching muscles, heart muscle
weakness and heart disease. It can also contribute to
sensitivity to the toxic effects of arsenic and mercury
and perhaps other heavy metals at lower than the usual toxic levels.

Excerpt from book: Zinc (Zn)

Hair zinc does provide useful information about body zinc
levels but interpretation can be complex since elevated
hair zinc can indicate low body levels, and low zinc can too.

Low hair zinc does correlate well with low red blood cell
and total body zinc. Substantially elevated hair zinc is
usually a sign of zinc wasting and consequent LOW
body zinc levels (and low blood zinc levels). That is, people
with high hair zinc usually have low red blood cell zinc
and low tissue levels of zinc. Rarely will high hair
zinc be due to elevated body levels of zinc.

Plasma and serum zinc are reduced in acute illness and
are not reliable indicators of body inventory....

Vegetarian diets are low in zinc. High carbohydrate
intake is believed to reduce zinc levels and high
consumption of grains is known to hinder zinc absorption.
Modern foods are relatively low in zinc compared to foods
50 years or more ago (due to changes in agricultural
methods since that time), and sometimes are preserved
by the use of EDTA or other agents to sequester whatever
zinc is in them and render it unavailable. In addition,
zinc absorption from the intestines is limited and
saturable, which means a smaller fraction is absorbed
as the amount taken increases. Thus as you increase
the amount taken a lot the amount absorbed only
increases a little. Because of this very few people
will have high enough zinc levels to be a problem unless
they take zinc supplements several times a day for months on end....

Much zinc is absorbed in the large intestine and
people with chronic diarrhea can become zinc deficient.

The half life of zinc in the body is about 4 months.
Interventions to affect zinc levels will thus typically
have their effects gradually over a period of several months....

Low zinc levels lead to rough dry flaky skin especially on the h
ands, feet and around body orifices. It also causes slow wound
healing, poor immune function – specifically cellular immunity – in
the presence of normal levels of white blood cells and antibodies,
poor appetite, reduced taste sensitivity, reduced sense of smell,
fatigue and poor night vision. Low zinc also lead to impaired
growth and development in children, and to birth defects and
difficulties during labor and delivery. Severe forms of
childhood zinc deficiency are described in standard medical
textbooks. Current estimates are that about 10% of children
have mild zinc deficiencies that they are suffering some
negative effect from, e. g. that they have recurrent ear
infections – a problem which can often be stopped with
supplementary zinc....

Low zinc levels are known to cause impairment of neurological
and psychiatric functioning which are corrected by zinc
supplementation, and zinc supplementation is known to
improve attention and behavior in ADHD.

The specific aberration of immune function that zinc
deficiency causes is an imbalance between T helper
type 1 and T helper type 2 cells along with reduced
activity of natural killer (NK) cells. This is also commonly
observed in mercury toxic people and is most likely a
consequence of their poor zinc status due to mercury
induced mineral transport derangement. This results i
n allergies, autoimmunity and a poor immune response to
pathogens like viruses, bacteria, yeast and fungus.

What people have to say about Hair Test Interpretation

What the author has to say

I wrote this book to make hair tests useful for both sick people
and their doctors. There are many clinical laboratory tests
available but few are covered in medical school curricula.
Since hair testing is so inexpensive and widely applicable
a book that explained it and provided actual results from
real cases is needed. I wrote this book so that it can
serve as both a teaching and reference text and can be
understood by anyone, yet includes the technical detail
of interest to the most specialized reader.

What readers have to say

An important book for practitioner and patient alike

In this book Dr. Cutler deftly disentangles the major
as well as subtle aspects of hair analysis. Prior to
now clinicians have had to rely on ineffective and
dangerous methods to assess patients for potentially
toxic heavy metals. These methods never brought about
clinical results because they were not based on reliable
statistical probabilty. Hair Test Interpretation teaches
the clinician and lay person how to easily detect a
mercury problem with important clinical implications
and correlations. The "Cutler Counting Rules" are a
fast screening device that can be used to determine
whether mercury is a causal factor in pathologic states.

In addition to defining the Counting Rules, Dr. Cutler
goes into great depth, explaining the effects of mercury
on hair mineral transport----so called "deranged or
abnornal mineral transport". Reconciling essential
elements in the light of deranged mineral transport
takes on new meaning and application. This is vital
for proper interpretation of other toxic elements and
potentially toxic levels of other essential elements
in the body. This new methodology of interpretation
is important for uncovering multiple toxicities, as
well as how it relates to organ and endocrine function
(i.e. adrenal and thyroid).

Andrew Cutler has sourced many aspects of the elements
on classical homeopathy, giving a striking "constellation"
or clinical picture to look for in patients' physiology
and psychological profile. The correlation of this to
real time clinical assessment has been extremely valuable
in my own practice.

I particularly enjoy the easy to read hair charts
that are presented with patient cases, and the
fluid and easy writing style of the book given the
complex nature of the subject matter at hand.

I do believe that as people discover both the veracity of the
Cutler Counting Rules, as well as the high success rate a
chieved through proper chelation using alpha lipoic acid
and DMSA/DMPS orally on a 3-4 hour basis (also attributed
to Dr. Cutler in his prior book Amalgam Illness:
Diagnosis and Treatment), that this new book,
Hair Test Interpretation will find its proper place
among tools that intelligent doctors and clinicians
use to help people heal.

Jerome Deutsch, MS, LN
Santa Fe, NM

Dr. Andrew Cutler has my utmost respect

This new book by Dr. Cutler is the definitive guide
in the confusing world of heavy metal poisoning
diagnosis and treatment. I'm a practicing physician,
20 years now specializing in detoxification programs
for treatment resistant conditions. It was fairly
difficult to diagnose these heavy metal conditions
before I met Dr. Cutler and developed a close
relationship with him while reading his books.
This latest book is the most informative and scholarly
work to date. In this book I found his usual painstaking
attention to detail gave a solid framework for
understanding the complexity of mercury toxicity as
well as the less common exposures. The book grounds
the reader so they feel well supported in making
diagnostic and therapeutic decisions. You really
couldn't ask for a better reference book on a s
ubject most researchers and physicians are still
fumbling in the dark about. To date I have not
found a book on heavy metals poisoning to be
more exacting and useful for the clinician
and the lay person. Dr. Cutler writes with a
passion based on his own personal ordeal with
mercury and his passion for rationally discovering
the insidious sources, careful and safe
diagnostic measures and appropriate treatment
program. If you've tried to definitively diagnosis
someone you love, a patient or yourself, this book
will point you better than any other to find the
biologically correct answer.

Dr. Rick Marschall
Port Angeles, WA

Outstanding Resource

Hair Test Interpretation: Finding Hidden Toxicities
serves as an essential resource for anyone with a relative
or friend with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, Alzheimer's
Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,
or Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. As Dr. Cutler explains,
heavy metal toxicity often plays a role in these and other
"mystery" conditions. He provides information about how
to identify and reduce sources of exposure as well as
how to safely reduce one's body burden.

As in Amalgam Illness: Diagnosis
and Treatment, the author respects the intelligence
of his readers while recognizing that they don't
necessarily have medical degrees. Dr. Cutler provides
many sample hair tests to illustrate his "counting rules".
Individuals who have decided to take charge of their own
health and the health of their families owe it to
themselves to add this excellent book to their home library.

Linda G. Shepard Salzer,
MA Environment & Community

An Important Book for Parents of Patients Too

Andrew Cutler's new book, Hair Test Interpretation:
Finding Hidden Toxicities, used together with his
previous Amalgam Illness: Diagnosis
and Treatment, offers parents of children with heavy
metal toxicity the opportunity to understand the specific
character of their children's problems, and identify what
supplements and treatments can be used to emeliorate them.

No doctor, except perhaps in well-prepared, hour-long
consults that simply don't exist, can provide the kind
of information these books can.

If you are a patient, trying to understand the exact nature
of your problem, or the parent of a young patient, trying
to give help, these are the books to have.

Daniel McKee

A valuable tool for mercury toxicity

With saunas being used increasingly for detoxification,
I am contacted by heavy-metal injured patients and parents
of autistic children on a regular basis. I have become
sorely aware that many protocols to eliminate mercury
from the body are controversial and oftentimes dangerous,
and that the commonly used hair analysis is not only complex,
but its meaning can be confusing or counter intuitive
to the findings.

A most helpful bright light upon this can be found in the
two books by Dr. Andrew Cutler, Amalgam
Illness: Diagnosis and Treatment and the more recent
Hair Test Interpretation: Finding Hidden Toxicities.

I had a copy of Hair Test Interpretation with me at a
recent medical conference and showed it to several
clinicians who deal with mercury toxicity. Each person,
after perusing the book, was genuinely excited to finally
find a way of dealing with the subtleties and complexities
of interpreting hair tests in their practices.

I believe that both parents of metal-injured children and
physicians will find Dr. Cutler's newest contribution a
most valuable tool.

Bob Morgan
Owner
Heavenly Heat Saunas

A Must Buy for Parents of Kids with Disabilities or Delays (potentially Toxic Kids)

As with his earlier book, Amalgam Illness:
Diagnosis and Treatment, I found this book invaluable. By
using his book as a reference, I was able to gain very useful
information regarding the hair tests of my children. As always,
Dr. Cutler is insightful into the topic of heavy metals. It is
nice to have a book demystify hair testing for heavy metal
especially since this test is one of the best ways for screening
for heavy metals. Following Dr. Cutler's protocol for detoxification
(as outlined in Amalgam Illness (and under the supervision
of my doctor)), I have effectively eliminated my son's symptoms
of autism. With the information gained from reading Hair Test
Interpretation, I have increased my knowledge in this area and
have been able to better understand what has been going on in my
children's bodies as they have detoxified.

Maureen Block, JD
San Francisco, CA

Fascinating

I refer to this book (along with Amalgam Illness:
Diagnosis and Treatment) almost every day in my clinical practice.
Anyone who does heavy metal detox professionally and doesn't use
this book is asking for trouble. It is also useful for laypeople,
however, and I found it to be better organized than Amalgam Illness,
his prior book, but with a different focus and lots of new information.

I look forward to the day when Dr. Cutler's diagnosis and treatment
protocols are in our practitioner training programs – that is when
much more of today’s suffering will begin to subside. But, if you are
lucky enough to be in the know now, you can get a big head-start!

To tell you the truth, I have had little use for so-called
"alternative medicine" solutions and providers. That is, until I
came across Dr. Cutler's soon to be famous Hair Test Interpretation
textbook. This easy to read, highly scientific book is the finest
example of what truly intelligent and gifted people can do when left
alone to conduct real scientific research, on real problems, and develop
proven techniques to cope with problems the medical community evidently
would prefer people to just keep paying them for, and receiving no relief.

Using Dr Cutler's book, I correctly identified myself as having a lead
toxicity problem. After several cycles of chelation, my health improved
dramatically. I went from being a lethargic, disinterested, television addict,
to being a revitalized full functioning human being again. Now, at age
51, I was able to complete and certify in American Red Cross lifeguard
training (I was a competitive swimmer in my younger years), something
I have NOT been able to do since my 30s....and the
so-called medical doctors could not figure out what my problem was.

When I first bought Hair Test Interpretations and shared my hair
test results with my primary care physician, he told me to ignore the
results, they weren't conclusive. But Dr Cutler's protocols said they
were significant. I listened to Dr. Cutler, and I'm damn glad I did!!!
His book cured me, and I'm confident his book can cure you too.

Christopher Carlton, PhD

It's Like Having a Navajo Code Talker Help You Break the "Secret Code"

Like many other clinicians, I always felt that hair analysis, performed
and interpreted correctly, would be an invaluable asset to understand
the toxicity and deranged mineral transport that people with "mental
illness", mental retardation, Autism, and chronic physical illnesses
were bound to have.

However, I found it impossible to teach myself the "art and science"
of understanding, interpreting, and actually using hair analysis as
a cornerstone of a treatment plan. I am SO appreciative
to finally have this book by Dr. Andrew Cutler to help me begin to
comprehend the complex inter-relationship of variables involved in
hair test interpretation.

As with Dr. Cutler's previous work (Amalgam Illness:
Diagnosis and Treatment), this is not just a book you sit down
and "read." You must study it, and spend time with it to do it,and
yourself, justice. I'm blown away by the work, research, analysis
nd synthesis involved in this book. Great for parents of sick children,
and adults who have not been helped by the "usual" tests and approaches.

Also, great for those doctors/practitioners who felt hair analysis
was "worthless" or unreliable. Maybe it's because the interpretation
of the results is not linear. Maybe once someone helps you understand
the logic and see the patterns, the wisdom finally starts to emerge.
It's like a gigantic piece of scientific insight brought into focus
and interpreted for all of us: health care providers, parents of sick
kids, and adults with chronic illnesses. Unlike anything else available.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED READING for anyone involved with helping
anyone to recover their lost health, stolen by toxins.